Chapter 740: German-Soviet War (62)

"Burned corpse?" The division commander who received the report twitched his mouth a few times and pointed to the carbon-like object that could no longer be seen in the distance. "That too?" He didn't even notice that his voice was trembling slightly.

Several soldiers nodded. "Yes, comrade division commander, that is also a charred corpse."

The faces of the people around him turned pale. The strong man who originally weighed more than 100 kilograms was burned into such a small mummy curled up in a ball, which was simply chilling.

Looking at the survivors who were a little mentally abnormal, the division commander swallowed hard and immediately gave an order. "Order the troops to stop advancing and build air defense fortifications on the spot! We have to continue advancing after nightfall." It was noon now. If they continued to move forward, they might also encounter German air raids and end up in the same fate; although marching at night would affect the original combat plan, it was better than becoming this charred carbonized object.

The troops stopped and began to build air defense fortifications. The division commander ordered people to send a telegram to Smolensk to explain the situation. The news gathered by Commander Shaposhnikov was even more severe. The Germans used quite terrible incendiary bombs, which would explode in the air and sprinkle fire rain all over the sky. The reinforcements heading to Smolensk encountered such incendiary bombs halfway, and the casualties were close to 100,000. This number is quite astonishing. You should know that at this time, the defenders of Smolensk were nearly 10,000 White Army, and the Germans wiped out one-tenth of the defenders in just half a day.

In desperation, Commander Shaposhnikov could only send a telegram to Stalin, asking him not to let the subsequent reinforcements continue to die. Relying on the White Army assembled in the city, he was confident that he could hold on for at least a year or even longer.

"..." Stalin's face was extremely solemn in the underground office. Not only Smolensk, but the Germans also launched combat operations in Leningrad and Stalingrad at the same time. It was obvious that the Germans wanted to capture these three cities in the shortest time.

The political status of Leningrad once declined after the capital was moved to Moscow, but no matter how much it declined, it was still a holy place of revolution and an important core city in the Soviet Union second only to Moscow. Especially after it was renamed Leningrad, because it was named after the mentor, the symbolic significance of this city is self-evident.

And Stalingrad, a city named after him, must not be trampled by the enemy!

What's more hateful is that the Germans have already said that after conquering Stalingrad, it will be renamed Hohenzollernrad; Leningrad will be renamed St. Fredericksburg, which is a slap in his face! !

Stalin naturally could not tolerate such a thing happening, and once the Germans captured these three cities, they would point their spearheads at Moscow. Therefore, Stalin repeatedly sent telegrams to the defenders of Smolensk, Leningrad, and Stalingrad; strictly ordered them to defend to the end.

After all, the Soviet and American air forces were no match for the German air forces. After paying a heavy price, the air battle came to an end.

Faced with the fierce attacks from the German air and ground, the Soviet defense line could only retreat step by step. In just three days, the northeastern defense line of Smolensk was completely destroyed, and a huge encirclement enveloped the entire Smolensk.

Near Smolensk, the German army had already assembled nearly 30,000 artillery of various calibers.

105mm, 150mm, 170mm, 210mm howitzers; 128mm, 150mm, 170mm cannons; 122mm, 227mm rocket launchers roared and began to bombard the defensive positions outside Smolensk.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The first to fire was the 210mm howitzer with the longest range and the most powerful. Although the number of 210mm howitzers is far less than that of other calibers, the power of 210mm shells is amazing. Often, a shell would leave a huge crater on the Soviet position.

"Boom!"

A 210mm shell happened to fall into the Soviet trench, and with a huge explosion, this section of the trench was directly blown down by dozens of meters. All the various firepower points deployed on this section of the trench were also destroyed. Fortunately, the Soviet army hid in the anti-artillery hole when the shelling began, so there were no casualties.

But even hiding in the anti-artillery hole is not 100% safe. At this moment, in an anti-artillery hole, a row of Soviet soldiers squeezed inside were covered in dust by the mud and sand that kept falling from the ceiling. They looked at the ceiling that was shaking and shaking with the explosion outside, fearing that it would suddenly collapse and bury them inside.

"Comrade squad leader, can this air-raid shelter withstand the German shelling?" A young soldier who looked childish swallowed nervously and asked the squad leader next to him. Although this young soldier was wearing a Soviet military uniform, he was not a regular soldier. A month ago, he was an ordinary civilian in Smolensk. In order to resist the German invasion, he voluntarily joined the Smolensk Guards. He only learned how to shoot for a few days, and spent the rest of the time building these fortifications.

The squad leader, who was older than him, patted him on the shoulder and comforted him in a very affirmative tone. "Don't worry, the German artillery bombardment looks fierce, but it can't destroy our anti-gun holes."

The platoon leader with the highest military rank in the anti-artillery cave sat near the entrance of the cave. Although this position was dangerous during the bombardment, he would rather sit here than sit inside. Although Smolensk had nearly 10,000 troops, most of the elite troops were deployed in the outer defense line and in the city. Most of the defense lines in the middle area like theirs were armed guards made of civilians.

The same goes for various building materials. The outer defense line and urban street fighting fortifications must be supplied first. Because of the serious shortage of materials in their suburban defense lines, many positions' fortifications were shoddy. The construction standards of anti-artillery caves like this are steel bars and cement, which are used to resist the bombardment of large-caliber shells from the enemy; but this anti-artillery cave is a civil structure, and its anti-artillery ability is greatly reduced compared to the original standard. Maybe nothing can be seen in normal times, but in wartime, these fatal defects will naturally be exposed. Once directly hit by the enemy's large-caliber shells, there will be a risk of collapse, and then all of them will be buried alive inside. He would rather be killed by shells than be buried alive.

The rockets fired by the German 122mm and 227mm rockets fell on the Soviet positions like raindrops.

In terms of caliber, the power of the 227mm rocket is obviously higher than that of the 122mm rocket, but the number of 227mm rockets is far less than that of the 122mm rocket.

Because rocket launchers are area-killing weapons, they need to effectively cover and damage targets of a certain area. The German 122mm rocket can fire 36 rockets at a time, while the 227mm rocket can only fire 12 rockets at a time. The former can reach the target using an integral warhead fragmentation grenade, while the latter needs to use dual-purpose submunitions. In terms of projection efficiency, there is not much difference between the two. In terms of mobility, the 36-mounted 122mm rocket can be made below 20 tons, while the 227mm rocket must reduce the number of launch tubes if it is to be made below 20 tons.

Therefore, the German troops preferred 122mm rocket launchers, and only a few battalions were equipped with 227mm rocket launchers.

Dense rockets fell on the Soviet positions, submerging everything there at once. Several 227mm rockets fell near the anti-artillery cave. The Soviet soldiers in the anti-artillery cave looked at the ceiling with horror, and large pieces of soil fell down.

"Run! It's going to collapse!!" The Soviet platoon leader sitting at the entrance of the cave roared and fled out first. Unfortunately, before the others had time to get up, the entire anti-artillery cave collapsed, and dozens of Soviet soldiers hiding in it were all buried alive.

The German rockets continued to fall, and the Soviet platoon leader who escaped from the anti-artillery cave was instantly torn into pieces by the raging fragments.

This anti-artillery cave is not an exception, but just one of the many anti-artillery caves that were bombed out. Faced with the continuous bombardment of the German army, these poor Soviet soldiers had only two choices: either huddle in the anti-artillery cave that might collapse at any time, or escape from the anti-artillery cave and be killed by the German artillery fire.

It is not that the Soviet army has not tried to fight back with artillery. After all, the Soviet army has always attached great importance to artillery construction and also has a powerful artillery force. But rashly engaging in artillery battles when the German army has air superiority is simply courting death. Once the Soviet artillery fires, there is no need to wait for the next round. The German attack aircraft will fly over and drop bombs on them, sending the entire artillery position into the sky.

The fierce bombardment continued until nightfall.

The next day, the sky was bright and the German artillery attack came again; and today the German Army Aviation also joined in the fun. The sky-covering attack aircraft group hovered over the Soviet position and threw various bombs at those places that seemed to be the Soviet hiding places.

"These damn Germans, do they want to blow us all to death with artillery shells?" The Soviet soldiers hiding in the anti-artillery cave cursed in frustration, but could only silently endure the endless bombardment.

"I didn't expect the German artillery fire to be so fierce." Commander Shaposhnikov frowned deeply in the command post in Smolensk. The purpose of building the suburban defense line was to make the German troops suffer as many casualties as possible before the German army entered the city, but the Germans did not expect that the Germans used so many artillery, and the fierce bombardment made the Soviet army in the suburban defense line pay a heavy price. More than 10,000 people were killed and wounded in just one day. Although most of the soldiers in this line of defense are temporarily formed "guards", it would be better to deploy them in the city than to sacrifice them in vain under the German artillery fire like now. (Today's chapter, my toothache is so severe that I almost rolled on the floor)

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